Target setting in Nursery

I work at a school which wants us to set targets for the 60 nursery children that come through our doors everyday in all strands of PSED, CLL and PSRN.

I was wondering if any of your schools do target setting in the nursery? If so, what does it look like in your setting? Do your children progress through one 'full' age and stage, e.g. D22-36 to D30-50 or E30-50 to E40-60+ over the course of the year?

Whose responsibility is it to set the targets in your school and why?

What criteria of progress do you use? - I have the Ofsted Judging attainment statement which says that most children are likely to be working within the development matters band for 30-50 months having shown competence in the preceding band for 22-36 months. Does anyone use this as an rough guide to "Age related expectations" on entry into nursery?

Or should I just be arguing the case that all of our children develop at different rates, the ages and stages for children are 'guidance' and that some children at these ages will not achieve these levels of development due to other factors? etc etc

The target setting I have completed so far was a very long and tedious task which I am sure won't benefit my children. I can look at their learning pictures and observations in order to work out next steps and plan provision and these are personal targets for them but trying to decide where I think they will be at the end of the year is ridiculous in my eyes...

Sounds ridiculous! I would argue against it and get some advice from your local early years support teacher or advisor.

Totally inappropriate at that age not to mention how much time and admin it would take you to facilitate it all for 60 kids.

That is precious time you could be spending planning, observing and resourcing effectively and will probably lead to too much adult initiated work to get them to where they need to be. You'd be constantly asking the child to 'come and do a special job with me' then find your self saying 'come on you know this!!!'

Sorry, rant over, i would get some outside advice before you land yourself in a mountain of unnecessary paperwork.

I've said it before and I'll say it again the nursery class I work in is very formal for an EYFS setting and we do set targets but they are generic targets for each child (set by the previous nursery teacher - I joined late). I don't follow them with precision because as pointed out nursery aged children will develop in their own right but at the same time I do feel pressure from above for children to achieve all these targets.

Most children will reach these targets within my class but there will be 7 or so that don't but I have no concerns about them its just not the time. However, I'm not sure the people above me will see it that way...

Surely all the 'targets' are already written down in the E.Y.F.S. 'development matters' statements? We are all working towards them for all children on a daily basis and this is evidenced in our planning. Individual target setting is only necessary for children who have specific special needs. I know you are under pressure from above but I think if you can clearly state the principles of E.Y.F.S. and show how your planning and record keeping support the children's progress then you should have a convincing argument.